Video camera and audio systems have been developed for improving communication among individuals who are separated by distance and/or time. These systems and the process are generally referred to as “videoconferencing”. Videoconferencing seeks to emulate the range, level, and intensity of interpersonal communication and information sharing that would occur if the people or meeting participants were “face-to-face” in the same room at the same time.
Conventional videoconferencing systems provide video conference participants located at different locations with only an incomplete simulation of the perception or feeling of being in the same physical space. Typically, a videoconference system includes one or more standard definition cameras, and one or more television-sized monitors in each room. The overall approach is simply to enable participants in each room to see each other on their respective video monitors, much like watching television. Where the camera is set to capture an image of the entire room, the participants in that room often appear small and remote to the viewers in the destination room. Where the camera is zoomed to capture the face of one or the participants, then it appears oversized in scale, and without any of the context of the rest of the participants. In particular, the viewers in the remote room cannot see the reactions, body language or other activity of the participants in the source room when the camera is zoomed in on only one of the participants there. Overall, no effort is made to create the perception of a single shared physical space between the participants where participants in both rooms can see the entire other room in a realistic and properly scaled fashion.
Further, conventional videoconferencing systems are not conducive to how individuals normally interact in a group setting, such as in a group meeting, with respect to eye contact with each other, use of body language, and other non-verbal cues. As a result, participants rely primarily on voice communication and less on useful visual information and cues in order to communicate and thereby fail to convey much of the emotional content experienced with “in-person” meetings.